Quote Originally Posted by hospitaller View Post
what I find hilarious is that 1999 is considered 'vintage',
Well, it's Comme des Garçons, which means that it's a fashion piece, and if it's fashion, last year's stuff is, like, sooo last year.

Comme des Garçons is a label created by Rei Kawakubo (who happens to be Japanese), who I've mentioned before here on these boards before. She was inspired by- and working with a lot of tartan for a while, but I don't know if she still is. (Her Fall 2009 collection seems to indicate that she's largely moved beyond that, though there are a few skirts that appear to be made out of tartan fleece picnic blankets.) Most of what I've seen her design is just a mess (to my eye), including the "Shilt" (that was my term for it), and the "Wad" (also my term) that ended up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's fashion collection.

The piece for sale today on ebay could be a one-off, but it looks more like it might have been one of the few designs that ended up in limited production, seeing how the silk is printed. It's pretty clear that it is NOT the sort of silk/wool kilt that Rathdown has described.

I occasionally try to have a discussion on the influence of kilts and tartans on modern fashion, but that usually doesn't end up going much of anywhere here, as there is much derision of the concept of "fashion" on XMTS, and not much understood.

Regards,
Rex.